ᗪIᐯEᖇGEᑎTᕼᗩᖇᗰOᑎIᑕᔕ

Caller in the desert.
My alternative account @carbon_based@sh.itjust.works moderates https://sh.itjust.works/c/neurodivergent.

  • 1 Post
  • 21 Comments
Joined 1 year ago
cake
Cake day: June 5th, 2023

help-circle













  • Biological – there are many species of flies, and many of them specialise in the food of their larvae (maggots). A relatively small number of species feed on feces, which are actually quite nutritional for a whole range of organisms. As they may require fresh poop for breeding, they naturally have a very good sense to smell that – it must really smell yummy to them! :-)
    Flies are among the first organisms in a chain of decomposers of organic waste materials, next to some species of beetles. Their larvae chiefly feed on the soft and moist material. Next will be fungi, other flies and beetles, mites (probably feeding on the fungi), springtails, isopods, nematodes, etc., all turning your compost into fertilised soil.

    Source: biologist, been closely watching my compost toilet (not a sophisticated type where one would go for minimal fly attraction but made for fast fertiliser production).

    Metaphorical – well, in a world where greed is acceptable and exploitation is a norm, bad things attract bad actors (who may also be specialised to metaphorically feed on certain bad stuff) – who will profit from such bad things.



  • The baker boy had come to wake up Octavius Picus from his afternoon nap. The delegation from the market at Nuceria had already arrived. They were early. Three people, the boy said, an elderly man with bad eyesight and a young woman guiding him, and another man who was carrying some scrolls. They could be heared chatting with Octavius’ wife Marcella in the atrium. No hurry. He sat up on the bedside and rubbed his eyes.

    The landlords around Nuceria had recently founded a cooperative and had now come to bargain a new deal for their grain. He wouldn’t really know what to make of it, especially since his plan of opening a taverna would certainly require him to buy more wheat and he also wanted to have their beer. Would all that make it more expensive or less? –
    Alright, let’s serve them something, he told the boy. Make us five of the speciality quick plates, with sausage, eggs and sweet wine, but not the most expensive one. And do not forget the basilicum and cheese sauce on the panem picum!



  • There may be several answers to this. This is my somewhat simplified take.

    One is, it’s a (series of) physical action (heating, gasification, pyrolysis – break-up of molecules of the fuel) and chemical reactions (oxidation). Oxidation means in general (in a commonly accepted model) that an atom shares away its outer electrons, which makes it acquire a lower energetic state. Oxygen is one element that is eager to attract such electrons for the same reason.
    Whenever such a reaction happens, the superflous energy is released as a quant of electromagnetic radiation (a wave/particle) which we call a photon (it’s therefore called an exothermic reaction). Photons can appear to us as visible light (that is wavelenghts in the visible spectrum). The wavelength of a photon inverse-correlates with the energy of the photon (blue > red).

    Getting the reaction going however, requires the molecules of the fuel to get excited with energy in the first place, which is the required activation energy. This can be done by heating the atoms of the fuel. And as the oxidation also emits heat energy (far infrared), and in fact more than what is required for the whole phsyical-chemical process to happen, it can sustain itself (given the right conditions, see the second answer). This self-sustaining gassification, pyrolysis and oxidation we call a flame.

    Flame colours are composed of the glow of gases at different temperatures (“red” is colder than “white”) and the colour corresponding to the wavelength of the photons emitted in the oxidation reaction (simplified). In a typical candle flame, we see mainly hydrogen burning at the lower end (where the flame is blue but the gas is still reatively cold). Carbon takes a bit more activation energy (burns less easily), so it will start to oxidise farther up the flame where the gas is hotter. Carbon will make an orange flame at these temperatures. Other elements burn in all kinds of colours. A burning copper wire will make a flame glow green. Print colours on paper can contain metals which burn in different colours.

    The other answer is how I explain how to make a “smokeless” campfire.
    A fire needs three things: fuel (something to burn, wood), oxigen (air), and heat. Smoke is just the gases coming out of the wood condensating because they are either not hot enough for activation of the final combustion, or there is too little air getting into the hot zone of the fuel. Anything that is smoke could be a flame when the smoking part is put into a hotter place. Black smoke usually means that there is too little heat for the carbon to get fully oxidised. Cold fuel and having to evaporate water in the wood generally takes away heat from the flames.

    TL;DR: A flame is a self-sustaining combustion process in a mixture of gases that needs to be hot and be steadily fed with fuel and oxygen. The gas is so hot that it glows.